DON REID FINALLY BREAKS HIS SILENCE ON REPLACING LEW DeWITT WITH JIMMY FORTUNE 🎙️💔
It’s a story country music fans thought they’d heard all before — but now, decades later, Don Reid of The Statler Brothers has opened up like never before about one of the most emotional turning points in the group’s history: the day they had to replace founding member Lew DeWitt with a young, unknown singer named Jimmy Fortune.
In a heartfelt new interview, Don’s words revealed both the pain and providence behind that decision. His voice, still rich with warmth and humility, trembled as he revisited that crossroads — a time when the harmony that had carried them to stardom was suddenly at risk of falling apart.
“It wasn’t just about finding a singer,” Don said quietly. “It was about finding someone who could carry the heart of what we’d built — and that wasn’t something you could audition for.”
Lew DeWitt, the original tenor and one of the group’s founding pillars, had been battling health complications that made performing impossible. For Don, Harold, and Phil, the decision to bring someone new into their brotherhood was agonizing. “We loved Lew,” Don explained. “He wasn’t just part of the sound — he was part of the soul.”
When they first heard Jimmy Fortune sing, however, something happened. “It wasn’t just his voice,” Don recalled. “It was the spirit behind it. We didn’t know it then, but God was giving us a gift we didn’t see coming.”
That “gift” would soon carry The Statler Brothers into a new era — one marked by chart-topping hits like ‘Elizabeth,’ ‘Too Much on My Heart,’ and ‘My Only Love.’ Songs that, as Don admitted, might never have existed without the pain that came before them.
“Jimmy didn’t try to replace Lew,” Don said. “He honored him. And in doing that, he helped all of us heal.”
The moment Don’s comments were released, social media lit up with emotional reactions. Fans who had grown up with The Statler Brothers’ harmonies shared memories of how the transition shaped not only the group’s sound, but the very soul of country music in the 1980s. Many wrote that it was the first time they had truly understood the depth of what the band went through behind the scenes.
Phil Balsley, known for his quiet steadiness, once said that Jimmy brought “a kind of peace” back to their music — a sentiment that Don echoed in this new reflection. “Every group faces loss,” he said. “But not every group gets the chance to turn that loss into a blessing. We did.”
For Don, the story of Jimmy’s arrival isn’t one of replacement — it’s one of redemption. “We never stopped being four voices in harmony,” he added. “The names changed, but the love didn’t.”
Looking back now, all these years later, Don calls that chapter both the hardest and the holiest in their journey. “Sometimes,” he said softly, “the Lord doesn’t take something away — He just reshapes it.”
For fans of The Statler Brothers, it’s a reminder of why their music endures: not because it was perfect, but because it was real — born from faith, friendship, and the courage to begin again.
And for Don Reid, Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Jimmy Fortune, and the late Lew DeWitt, that harmony — forged through heartbreak and grace — still rings true. 🎶❤️